Val Kilmer

[Lance]

Here's an actor who has shown me some good acting. Val Kilmer. I thought he did an excellent job in Tombstone. Anybody see that?

[IcedNote]

Tombstone is definitely one of the best westerns I've seen (along with Unforgiven). I also liked Val in Heat and The Saint. The former is a great movie; the latter is a movie that I just happen to like.

-G

[moldyoldie]

Wasn't he also Jim Morrison in The Doors? Looked the spittin' image!

Check out recent photos, he's put on quite a few!

[Fergus]

I also thought that he was really good in Heat.

Another one that I liked him in was Red Planet.

[Guitarist]

One of the worst movies ever is The Island of Dr. Moreau. Actually, Kilmer was OK--it was Marlon Brando who ruined it. Kilmer was great in The Salton Sea.

[Madame]

Kilmer is an excellent actor ... and the camera loves him. I just added Tombstone to my rental queue.

[Corlyss_D]

As a lover of the western genre, I think Tombstone is the finest western made, bar none, since Sergio Leone destroyed the genre with his cheesy spaghetti western and Peckinpah turned it into a slo-mo blood and gore fest. Tombstone was a very conscious tribute to John Ford as well, using Harry Carey, Jr., who was one of the Ford stock company actors, and Pedro Armendariz, Jr., who is the son of another of Ford's favorite stock company actors. It's been a standard response for decades that westerns are an inferior genre, but there was never anything inferior about the actors, the script writers who gave us so many great and often topical stories, the cinematographers who gave us such breathtaking vistas of the west in either black and white or color, or the directors who undertook them for decades. Ford was one of the greatest directors, and the westerns he made are among the greatest, so it was wonderful to see such a respectful rendering in keeping with the Ford tradition. In an interview Cosmatos talked about the shooting of the desert lightening scenes: they weren't studio tricks. They were caught out with a storm blowing up and the cinematographer was risking his life to get those shots, but he thought the cloud-to-ground strokes were too exceptional and too clear not to record. There are so many great shots in that film and so many great lines that make a lasting impression. My favorite is the dialog between McMasters and Doc Holliday after the shoot out at the stream. Doc alludes to the Cowboys' ambushing of Virgil and execution of Morgan.

McMasters: If they were my brothers, I'd want revenge too.
Doc: No, make no mistake. It's not revenge he's after; its a reckoning.

Solid characterful portrayals by Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Sam Elliot, Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, Michael Biehn, Stephen Lang, Dana Delaney, and a cameo by Charleton Heston (kinda one generation passing off the genre to the next generation) make for a unique cinematic experience in this day and age where CGI-obsessed directors starve plot and character development for video game flash-bang to get the younger demo in the seats. That Garrett enjoys the movie is very gratifying, since he's of the demo so feverishly sought by the CGI crowd.

[DavidRoss]

Thank you, Corlyss, for your thoughtful remarks about the genre. There have been several other good traditional Westerns made in the past few decades--Eastwood's Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josey Wales, Tom Horn, The Ballad of Little Jo, The Jack Bull, The Grey Fox, Kasdan's Wyatt Earp, The Long Riders, Simon Wincer's Crossfire Trail, Quigley Down Under, Lonesome Dove, and remake of Monty Walsh, Costner's Dances with Wolves and Open Range, for instance--but I agree that Tombstone is something special.

I loved Tombstone when I first saw it the week of its release, and I still love it. Even after seeing it on DVD more than a dozen times, I cannot help but get drawn into it whenever I pop the disc into the player. Great story, great storytelling, great pacing, and memorable performances from a remarkable cast. But the standout was certainly Val Kilmer. I still remember how wowed my companions and I were by his performance as we left the cinema after seeing it for the first time. If Mr. Kilmer's project selector were as good as his acting chops, he would be a major star, but for some reason he seems to work mostly in "B" movies. Another good one not yet mentioned is The Ghost and the Darkness, an underrated film about the man-eaters of Tsavo, a surprisingly well-made movie marred only by the scenery-chewing "acting" of Michael Douglas. An upcoming project that sounds interesting, Mark Twain and Mary Baker Eddy, is slated to feature Kilmer in the title role.

[Chalkperson]

Tombstone is definitely one of the best westerns I've seen (along with Unforgiven). I also liked Val in Heat and The Saint. The former is a great movie; the latter is a movie that I just happen to like.

-G

We all have our Cross to Bear...

The Saint...KWIM...

[Chalkperson]

As a lover of the western genre, I think Tombstone is the finest western made, bar none, since Sergio Leone destroyed the genre with his cheesy spaghetti western and Peckinpah turned it into a slo-mo blood and gore fest.

What about Silverado...

[Corlyss_D]

As a lover of the western genre, I think Tombstone is the finest western made, bar none, since Sergio Leone destroyed the genre with his cheesy spaghetti western and Peckinpah turned it into a slo-mo blood and gore fest.

What about Silverado...

What about it?

[DavidRoss]

Silverado is to Westerns what Marie Osmond is to blues singers.

[Chalkperson]

I guess you guys just don't like Laurence Kasdan as much as I do, so, how about The Long Riders...

[DavidRoss]

I guess you guys just don't like Laurence Kasdan as much as I do, so, how about The Long Riders...

I love Kasdan, but think Silverado--as enjoyable as it is in some respects--misses the mark. It has a Hollywood unreal quality that makes it seem almost like a satire at times. Kevin Kline and Jeff Goldblum as pistoleros? What next--Richard Simmons as a heavyweight boxer?

On the other hand, Body Heat was sensational, The Big Chill & The Accidental Tourist both fine, and--excluding the sappy young romance segment--even his other western, Wyatt Earp, was quite good.

And The Long Riders has long been one of my faves, a standout among gritty Westerns, with David Carradine in what was probably his best role as Cole Younger and featuring a remarkable re-enactment of the failed Northfield bank holdup. That bank still stands and it still bears bullet scars from that battle.

[kairos]

Tombstone and Wyatt Earp are my absolute favorite westerns. I have watched both of them numerous times and still have no trouble watching again. There are so many scenes and parts of dialogue that are memorable in Tombstone because of Val Kilmer --- "If we weren't friends I just don't think I could bear it." "I'm you're huckleberry." Many more, including the one mentioned by Corlyss of revenge vs reckoning. I also enjoy The Saint just for the enjoyment of watching Val.